Civic Participation: Political Campaign Poster
Purpose: The goal of this project is for you to learn a little bit more about how voters educate themselves about political candidates. To do this, you need to do a little research on those who are believed to be possible Presidential Candidates for the next Presidential Election in November of 2016 (while it seems a long way off, you can expect formal announcements from some candidates as soon as October of this year…seriously).
Points Possible: 100 points! (This is a TEST score!)
Final Due Date: Monday, April 27, 2015
PRODURE
Step 1: Choose a candidate. Investigate the list candidates for President, and choose one who you support. Use your results from the Web survey you completed as a guide, but feel free to choose any political party. I am providing you with a website with which to begin. Since it is very early on, each has a rather lengthy listing of potential candidates; feel free to find your own resources but this should help you out. However, be warned...there are some people who are a little out there with their beliefs; some of these folks are just plain weird.
http://www.politics1.com/p2016.htm
http://ballotpedia.org/Possible_presidential_candidates,_2016
Due Date: Monday, April 13 (10 Pts). You will provide me with your choice on this date, verbally, and I will annotate it. Please do basic research…you are going to have to sell your candidate on your poster, so find one with whom you somewhat agree with. For the posters, you will be using the same number system you used for your political party survey. This means that your name will NOT APPEAR anywhere on your campaign poster; You will only use the number I assigned to you, and your class period.
Step 2: Research your candidate. Use the internet, the evening news, the newspaper, and your family and friends to find out more about the candidate running for office. Most potential candidates also have Facebook pages, Twitter Accounts, and may email you back if you send them an email asking them questions! Make sure you can answer the following questions about your candidate:
p Where do they fall on the political spectrum?
o What are 4 of their platform planks that tell you this?
p What is the candidate’s background? (Childhood, Education, Work Experience, Important Life Events)
p Why is the candidate running for office?
p What experience does the candidate have that prepares him/her to lead our government?
p What are the major actions that the candidate is saying he/she will take action on if elected? What does the candidate want to do to improve the United States?
Due Date: Monday, April 20 (20 pts). Your answers to these questions can be in bullet form, but you must answer all parts of the question(s)
Step 3: Create your political campaign advertisement. Your poster should educate others about your candidate. You are trying to convince them to vote for your candidate, so you need to be persuasive. Your poster MUST include:
p Your candidate’s name
p Your candidate's political party
p Your candidate’s place on the political spectrum.
p The position your candidate is running for
p A photograph of your candidate (A must!)
p At least 5 experiences the candidate has had that prepare him/her to lead, summarized in YOUR OWN WORDS.
p At least 5 of the candidate’s major platform planks, summarized in YOUR OWN WORDS.
p 3 complete Paragraphs (6-8 sentences):
o 1 answering the question, “What are 4 experiences that make your candidate prepared to lead?”
o 1 answering the question, "What are 4 actions your candidate has already taken to improve our country?"
o 1 answering the question, “Which three or four planks in your candidate’s platform will do most to help the United States?”
p Colorful! A campaign poster should be attractive to the eye; it’s advertising!
p Neatness: If your poster is cannot be easily read, it is totally ineffective.
p Poster: A simple, single poster board is fine; there is no need to get a tri-fold, stand-alone presentation poster. Colored poster board is fine, but don’t let the poster board color be the only visually appealing portion of your assignment.
FINAL Poster Due Date: Monday April 27 (70 pts)